


Whisky and Wine

by dS_Tiff



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Alcohol, Dr. Curtis, Episode Related - S04E19 'Gator Done', Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Quintis - Freeform, Soul-Searching, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 03:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14096352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dS_Tiff/pseuds/dS_Tiff
Summary: It's the night after the events of 'Gator Done' and Paige has got herself into a little trouble in an unexpected way, so Ralph calls on Toby and Happy for help.





	Whisky and Wine

**Author's Note:**

> This is set after the events of S04E19 'Gator Done'. I guess I wanted to put Paige through... something. I hope you all enjoy it! All comments and reviews gratefully received, thank you kindly!

“Paige?” 

Toby's eyes had only been closed for a minute or two when he had been woken by his phone ringing. The unmistakable rock ballad he'd set for Paige's ringtone blasted his senses back to full alert. He quickly answered the call.

“It's almost midnight,” he said, keeping his voice low so as not to wake his sleeping - hopefully pregnant - wife. “Ralph?” Toby was taken aback when he realised the young genius was using his mother's phone. “What is it? What's wrong, buddy?” he asked. He knew Ralph hadn't called at this hour for a casual chat. 

“OK... OK... slow down, pal,” urged Toby as Ralph spoke at top speed down the phone. “No... no, you did the right thing. Don't worry, I'll be there in ten.”

Toby clicked off his phone and leapt out of bed, all hopes of a good night's sleep floating out of the window on a cloud of exhaustion. He pulled on boxers and jeans as quietly as he could, but Happy was a light sleeper and she stirred as he grabbed a t-shirt from the drawer. 

“What... what's going on?” she asked, rubbing her eyes and hauling herself to a sitting position. 

“Go back to sleep, Sugarpuff,” Toby half whispered. “I'm just gonna go see Paige.”

Happy's face fell into a puzzled frown. “At this time of night?” 

“Yeah, um, Ralph called,” continued Toby as he carefully placed his hat on his head. “Paige is... well, according to Ralph Paige is drunk.”

“Drunk!” exclaimed Happy. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and hurriedly threw off the Harvard t-shirt she'd been wearing as a nightshirt. “That's a new development for the waitress. I'm coming with you.”

Toby nodded in agreement. “Might be a good idea, Ralph’s pretty scared - understandably - you can talk to him and I'll deal with Paige.”

Toby ran out of the bedroom and grabbed his med bag. Seconds later his now fully dressed wife joined him.

“Shouldn't we call O'Brien?” she asked. She snatched the keys to her truck from the side with one hand and started pulling on her boots with the other.

“Ralph already tried to get hold of One Ninety Seven,” explained Toby. “No answer. Besides, I think Walt is the last person Paige is gonna want to see right now.”

The two of them raced out to Happy's truck and set off towards Paige's condo. “We've known Paige for nearly four years and I've never even seen her a little tipsy. Any theories, Doc?” asked Happy as they drove through the night. “This is the last thing I'd expect from her, especially when Ralph's there with her.”

Toby sighed. “I think I have a pretty good idea what this is about,” he said. “But for once I hope I'm wrong.”

Ralph was standing with the door open when they arrived. He had a bottle of whisky in his hand. “She's in the bedroom,” he told them. “I was playing video games and then I heard breaking glass. I thought she’d just tripped over. I tried to help her, but she pushed me away. I think she cut herself, there was blood and there's wine all over the carpet. I took this from her too, I don’t know how much she’s had.” Happy took the whisky from him and sniffed it in disgust.

“Don't worry, Ralphy,” said Toby, putting a reassuring hand on his young friend's shoulder. “We’ve got this.”

“I guess, er, I guess you're freaking out a little,” Happy said to Ralph as her husband ran off towards Paige's bedroom. She guided him towards the couch and sat him down. “Look, Ralph, sometimes adults just need to do this shit... er, stuff,” she said, wishing that she could find more reassuring words, but it was all she had. She was worried about Paige too, this was totally out of character and Toby might have an idea what had caused it, but she didn't have a clue. 

Ralph nodded sadly. “I know,” he replied. “I'm thirteen, I'm not a kid any more. I just...” He trailed off and closed his eyes.

Happy looked at him with overwhelming sympathy. Despite Ralph's protestation to the contrary, right now he was a scared and confused kid. Happy spontaneously pulled him into a hug. 

In the bedroom, Toby discovered Paige face down on the bed. He quickly checked her vitals and, satisfied that she was not in any immediate danger, rolled her onto her side and turned his attention to the cut on her finger. Ralph had been right about a wound and Toby examined it carefully to make sure there were no shards of glass. The shattered remains of a wine bottle were scattered at the end of the bed with half the contents forming a deep stain on the carpet. Another empty, but unbroken bottle lay amongst the wreckage. Toby glanced at the label and his heart sank. “That was a great vintage!” he exclaimed. 

Toby pulled some gauze, cotton wool and tape from his med bag to effect a temporary dressing. “Paige, can you hear me?” he said. The cut didn't seem to be too deep, but he would have to take a closer look at it later. “Paige? It's Toby, can you answer me?” he continued as he worked. “Come on, Paige. I know you can hear me from all the way down there in Wasted World.”

Paige stirred just as Toby fixed the last piece of tape around her finger. She tried to say something, but the only noise that she could muster was a groan.

“There you go,” said Toby, relieved that she had come round so quickly. He checked her pulse again, it was a little stronger than before. “Do you think you can sit up?” he asked. He tucked his arms under her shoulders and hauled her further up onto her pillows.

Paige's eyes flickered open. “W…Walter?” she managed to say.

“No, I’m Toby, the one with the hat and the procrastinating sperm,” replied Toby.

“Oh… Toby… what the…?” she began to answer him, but before she could say anything else a wave of nausea overwhelmed her and the colour drained from her face.

“Woah, let's get you to the bathroom,” said Toby and within seconds he had her on her feet with her arm draped around his shoulders. “Steady,” he urged and he helped her out of the room. She could barely put one foot in front of the other and she gagged twice as he hurried her along. “This is worse than dragging Woozy-Cabe through the swamp today,” he noted, dryly.

Toby was able to manoeuvre Paige to her knees in front of the toilet bowl just in the nick of time and she began to heave.

“It's OK,” he said, squatting behind her. He rubbed her back with one hand and held her hair with the other. “This is gonna make you feel so much better, believe me, I have personal experience.”

He briefly had to turn away as Paige emptied the entire contents of her stomach into the toilet. “This is why I didn’t go into general medicine,” he muttered to himself. “Psych patients don’t generally throw up on me… well, there was this one time….” but he decided that story could wait until another day.

“Toby…” gasped Paige during a brief respite in the proceedings. “I did the dumbest thing…” 

“I’d say the whisky on top of two bottles of wine – minus however much is currently soaking into your bedroom carpet - was pretty dumb,” agreed Toby. He filled a plastic tumbler with water and held it to her lips. 

“Not… not this…” Paige replied and she sipped gratefully at the water. “Walter… I… I… wh… what am I doing?” 

“Right now you’re putting me off carrots for life,” noted Toby, facetiously.

“I don’t wanna ch… ch…change him!” wailed Paige. “I love him!”

“I know you do,” answered Toby. He was starting to put pieces of the puzzle together and he didn’t like the picture that was forming. “Listen, we’ll talk about Walter later,” he said. “For now I just want you to breathe slowly, let’s try to kick this nausea.”

Paige followed his instructions and for a moment Toby thought she was done, but then she proved him wrong, hanging her head over the toilet bowl again. Finally she had nothing more to offer and she collapsed backwards into Toby's arms.

“You're OK,” he said gently. “You're OK.” Toby felt her nodding a weak acknowledgement against his chest. He pressed his hand to her forehead and was encouraged to see she wasn’t running a fever. He had been starting to get concerned that her symptoms indicated possible alcohol poisoning, but it seemed the violent sickness was simply down to her body rejecting the sudden and unexpected onslaught of liquor.

After a few moments, Paige found the strength to lift her head and she blinked deeply as she tried to focus. “Why... why are you here?” she said in a croaky voice.

“Ralph called,” he explained, narrowing his eyes to gauge her pupil reactions as he spoke. He didn't want her to worry about her son so he left the explanation there.

“What happened?” she asked, feeling a little more alert now. Then the memories began to flood back and her heart sank. “Oh god...”

“Here, drink some more of this,” said Toby offering her the water again. “You're dehydrated. Just sips, though. I know your mouth feels as dry as the Sahara, but your gastric muscles are gonna seriously object if you hit them too hard.”

Paige took the tumbler from him with shaky hands and took a sip.

“This brings back memories,” noted Toby. He had often turned to drink in the past - usually to try to forget how much money he'd just lost at a casino - so he knew exactly how Paige was feeling. He knew she hadn't taken in a late night poker game, though, so this was for a whole different reason.

“I’m… I’m sssooo… ssorrr…” Paige began, but her lips refused to co-operate.

“No need to be sorry,” replied Toby, putting the beaker down on the floor. “What are friends for?” He stood up, making sure Paige was supported against the wall and grabbed a towel. Then he ran it under warm water for a few seconds before crouching down again to wipe her face and hands.

“Oh…no… Ralph!” exclaimed Paige as Toby helped her to her feet.

“Ralph’s OK,” Toby reassured her. “Happy’s with him.”

“Happy? She… sssshhe’s here too?” 

“Yeah, she’s taking care of Ralph,” Toby confirmed. “Putting in some parenting practice,” he added with a grin. “C’mon, let’s get you back into bed. You need to sleep this off.”

In fact Ralph had quickly fallen asleep on Happy’s shoulder. She was starting to get uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to move in case she woke him. She was relieved when Toby finally emerged from the bedroom.

“How’s the waitress?” asked Happy, moving her dead arm as slowly as she could.

“She’s been better,” noted Toby, dryly. “At least I know what to expect now when our kids wind up like that at two a.m. after some wild and crazy party.”

“Our kids are not going to wild and crazy parties and they’re never coming home rat-assed at two in the morning, or they’ll be out on the streets,” replied Happy with a scowl.

“Oh, you’re going to be one of those mom’s are you?” grinned Toby. “So I guess I’ll have to be the easy going parent.”

Before Happy could answer, Ralph’s eyes opened and he blinked deeply before pushing himself to a semi-sitting position.

“Hey, pal,” said Toby, dropping to one knee in front of the couch as a grateful Happy retrieved her arm from underneath the young genius. “You should get yourself to bed. You mom’s gonna have a teensy-weensy headache in the morning, but other than that she’ll be fine.”

Ralph nodded slowly. “This is all my fault,” he said, sleepily. “If I hadn’t messed with those bikes today… she was so mad at me. I didn’t realise she was so disappointed in me.”

“Oh, Ralphy, it’s nothing to do with that!” exclaimed Toby. He squeezed the boy’s forearm in a gesture of reassurance. “I promise you, your mom’s just got a few things that she’s worried about right now and I guess she wanted to relax tonight. She just took it a little far, that’s all. I doubt she’ll do it again in a hurry. Absolutely not your fault, though, OK?”

“OK,” replied Ralph, the relief evident in his voice. 

“Now, listen up,” continued Toby. “I’m gonna stay here tonight, just in case your mom needs anything else. You should go to bed, it’s a school day tomorrow.”

Ralph sighed and staggered to his feet. “So I guess if it’s not my fault, this has something to do with Walter?” he asked.

Toby glanced at Happy before answering, surprised at Ralph’s perceptiveness. “Whatever it is you don’t need to worry about it,” he said. “It’ll all be OK, you’ll see.”

Ralph nodded to Toby and flashed an exhausted, but grateful smile to Happy before walking off into his bedroom.

Toby let out a long, slow breath and slumped down on the couch next to his wife. “Well that was something I never thought I’d see,” he said.

“I heard her barfing,” acknowledged Happy. “Ralph was already asleep, thankfully. I tried talking to him to start with, tried to stop him freaking out, but I didn’t really know what to say.”

“Whatever you said relaxed him enough that he fell asleep,” noted Toby with a smile.

Happy shrugged. She knew Ralph had been exhausted so she couldn’t really claim much of the credit for it. “So, I take it the kid was right and this has something to do with Walt?”

Toby nodded sadly. “I’m hoping I’ll get to the bottom of it tomorrow when she’s sobered up, but she was rambling about a few things when I tucked her into bed just now and added to the deception markers I was reading from One Ninety Seven before we left the garage, well, it’s all adding up to another week of awkward fun at work for Team Scorpion.”

“Great,” retorted Happy, rolling her eyes. “I could do without that. Why can’t those two figure each other out? Things were less awkward when Paige was with Tim… well, OK, maybe not.”

Toby shrugged. “Feels like that sometimes, doesn’t it,” he agreed.

“I never expected us to be the normal couple,” continued Happy.

“They’ll get there,” insisted Toby. “Eventually. Once Paige learns to deal with her insecurities. Anyway, I’m going to crash here on the couch, you should go home, Honeybunch.”

“You sure?” asked Happy. “I can stay too?”

“You need to sleep in a proper bed,” replied Toby, patting her abdomen gently. “Especially if there’s a Quintis shaped bun in your perfectly formed oven.”

“OK,” agreed Happy, too tired to resist. She leaned over and kissed him tenderly on the lips before getting to her feet. “Take care of Paige,” she added and she turned towards the door. Then she spun back on her heels to face him again. “Y’know, Doc…” she began hesitantly, unsure if vocalising her thoughts right now was a good idea or not. “You’re… you’re kinda hot when you’re taking care of someone who can’t take care of themselves. First Cabe today, now Paige… ”

A huge smile spread across Toby’s face as he realised what she was thinking. “Oh, Sugarplum, I’m gonna be the hottest Daddy around! Just you watch!”

Happy rolled her eyes, beginning to wish she hadn’t said it, even though it was true. “I’ll be back in the morning,” she said. Without saying another word to boost her husband’s ego any further, she left Paige’s condo.

The next morning Paige staggered out of her room to find Toby watching the cartoon channel and drinking coffee. “Oh, so it wasn’t a nightmare,” she said with disappointment. She rubbed her forehead and desperately tried to moisten her lips with her tongue. She had thrown on an old pair of sweatpants and the scruffy t-shirt she usually wore to clean the bathroom.

“Good morning, Miss Dineen,” said Toby with a grin. He got to his feet and walked over to join her in the kitchen area.

“If you ask me how I’m feeling I’ll throw something at you,” replied Paige, sitting down at the table. 

“As long as it’s not your stomach contents again,” replied Toby, raising his eyebrows in a gesture of sarcasm. 

“Um, about that,” began Paige, twisting her hands together in her lap with embarrassment. “I don’t remember much about last night, but I remember you were there… thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

“Probably barfed in your bed,” replied Toby, dryly. “I’m just glad Ralph called. Besides, we need you at the garage today, that pile of government paperwork won’t complete itself.”

“Where’s Ralph?” asked Paige as Toby handed her a glass of water and two painkillers.

“Happy took him to school,” explained Toby. “Don’t worry, we had a talk over breakfast. He’s OK.”

Paige nodded. “I owe him an apology,” she said. “I like a glass of wine, or two, occasionally – you know that - but last night I… last night… oh god, I haven’t done anything like this for years, not since…”

“Since Drew left?” offered Toby and Paige nodded sadly.

“I came home and saw the bottle,” continued Paige. “The South African Shiraz we were given when we recovered that plastic surgeon’s life savings from the Romanian hackers. I was keeping it for a special occasion, like the first anniversary of…” she trailed off and sighed.

“You and Walt,” Toby finished her sentence for her. “And you had a sudden feeling that you guys weren’t gonna make it that far… am I right?”

“If I denied it you’d know I was lying,” Paige pointed out. “So, I opened the bottle and… it’s so easy to get lost in a good wine.”

“Sure is,” agreed Toby. “So easy, especially when you’re desperate to replace your dark thoughts with a grape flavoured haze.”

“Then after the good wine, I went onto the cheap one… and then the whisky,” Paige explained. “It was Tim’s. I was going to pour it down the sink after… y’know… but I hadn’t got around to it yet.”

“Quincy Berkstead would call that a Symbolic Cleansing Gesture,” stated Toby and Paige managed a weak smile, but it soon faded.

“I think I made a big mistake yesterday,” she said. “And when I left the garage I had the feeling Walter was… I don’t know, he was just weird and I think it was my fault. Whatever was going through his head was all my fault and I want to fix it – I want to fix it so badly, Toby – but I don’t know how?”

Toby’s brow furrowed. “First of all you need to figure out exactly what it is you want to fix,” he said. “Because you’re giving me mixed signals right now.”

Paige thought about his words for a moment. Her head was pounding and she let out a deep sigh. “Um, Toby, I, er, I…” she began, but she couldn’t find the words.

“Not a great start to a therapy session,” noted Toby.

Paige shook her head. “I told him it was OK to lie to people, to me,” she said. “White lies, but… but…”

“That’s a tricky emotional concept to grasp for someone with a low EQ,” Toby pointed out. “It sure explains a few things, but I don’t know that Walt’s gonna be able to process something like that. Not yet.”

“Why do I keep trying to change him, Toby?” Paige pleaded for an answer. “I fell in love with who he is, I don’t want him to change, but I’m… I’m scared.”

“You’re scared of losing him,” said Toby. “You’re scared he’s going to leave, just like Drew… and Tim.”

“I never loved Tim,” said Paige.

“I know,” nodded Toby. “But he gave you everything you thought Walter couldn’t. Security, reliability, a normal life, a regular relationship with surprise flowers and hand-holding and you didn’t have to worry that he was going to abandon you… until he abandoned you.”

Paige’s bottom lip started to quiver. “What am I going to do?”

“First of all you need to replenish all the nutrients you flushed down the toilet last night,” replied Toby getting to his feet. “So I’ll make you some ginger tea with honey – ginger to settle your stomach of course and the fructose in the honey will help your body metabolise the last of the alcohol. Then you need to eat two poached eggs and two bananas.”

“Eggs?” asked Paige. “I thought that was a myth. Are they really good for hangovers?”

“Eggs contain cysteine which will help to break down…”

“Just give me the eggs, not a science lesson,” Paige interrupted him. 

Toby laughed and opened the door of the fridge. “OK, first breakfast, then we’ll schedule in some more couch time. This is definitely going to take more than one session, your critical inner voice is shouting louder right now than Cabe when someone uses his coffee mug.”

Paige nodded and smiled. “I think I really need help,” she acknowledged. “Thank you, Toby. You don’t need to do this for me.”

“I want to,” replied Toby, his tone uncharacteristically earnest for a moment. “All this expertise in my genius brain is wasted if I can’t use it to help the people I care about. And anyway, if you and Walt fall apart Scorpion falls apart too.”

“Thank you,” replied Paige. “Because Walter and Scorpion mean more to me than I can ever say and right now I’m so scared I’m going to screw it all up.”

Toby shook his head. “You won’t,” he said. “I won’t let you.”

THE END.


End file.
